Indie Piano Films: Four Minutes

I'm a fan of dark, indie films about playing the piano. My top pick has recently changed. To qualify: no big-name actors, low budget, no big-name producer. That means The Piano and The Piano Teacher are eliminated right out of the box. Holly Hunter and Isabelle Huppert are way too big! My top ranked indie for some time had been The Beat That My Heart Skipped, directed by Jacques Audiard, in 2005. Romain Duris stars as an aspiring pianist who is slowly tugged into a questionable line of business and the world of his small-time-crook father.  It's a tough and dark place that he inhabits. Let's get even darker.... Four Minutes, directed Chris Kraus in 2006, has knocked Heart Skipped out of the top spot! We have a double-helix of trouble here. Monica Bleibtru does a fantastic job playing an elderly piano teacher who works in a prison. She is incredibly strict, passionate about music, and tortured by memories of her youth in Nazi Germany. Her rebellious and violent student is in the slammer for murder and was a child prodigy. She is well played by Hannah Herzsprung. Kraus does a fantastic job with the development of their relationship, and their mutual relationship with music. There is some fun, kick-ass piano playing in the film.


TRIVIA: Yes, Monica is mother of Moritz Bleibtru, a German indie character actor. They both appeared in Tom Tykwer's early hit, Run Lola Run.